THE CURE OF A SICK MAN AT THE POOL OF BETHSAIDA
After this, there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now in Jerusalem next to the Sheep Pool there is a pool called Bethsaida in Hebrew, which has five porticos. Under these were crowds of sick people, blind, lame, and the paralyzed waiting for the water to move. At intervals, the angel of the Lord came down into the pool, and the water was disturbed and the first person to enter the water after this disturbance was cured of any ailment from which he was suffering. One man there had an illness which had lasted thirty-eight years, and when Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had been in that condition for a long time, he said, “Do you want to be well again?” “Sir,” replied the sick man, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed; and while I am still on the way, someone else gets down there before me.” Jesus said, “Get up, pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around.” The man was cured at once, and he picked up his mat and started to walk around. Now, that day happened to be the Sabbath, so the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the Sabbath; you are not allowed to carry your sleeping mat.” He replied, “But the man who cured me told me, “Get up, pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around.”” They asked, “Who is the man who said to you, “Get up, pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around”?” Then man had no idea who it was, since Jesus had disappeared, as the place was crowded. After a while, Jesus met him in the Temple and said, “Now you are well again. Do not sin any more, or something worse may happen to you.” The man went back and told the Jews that Jesus cured him. It was because he did things like this on the Sabbath that the Jews began to harass Jesus. His answer to them was, “My Father still goes on working, and I am at work, too.” However, that only made the Jews even more intent on killing him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but also he spoke of God as his own Father and so made himself equal to God. To this, Jesus replied, “In all truth, I tell you, by his own self, the Son can do nothing; he can do only what he sees the Father doing and whatever the Father does, the Son does too. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he himself does, and he will show him even greater things than these, works that will astonish you. Thus, as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to anyone he chooses; for the Father judges no one; he has entrusted all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whoever refuses honor to the Son refuses honor to the Father who sent him. In all truth I tell you, whoever listens to my words, and believes in the one who sent me, has eternal life; without being brought to judgment such a person has passed from death to life. In all truth I tell you, the hour is coming - indeed it is already here - when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and all who hear it will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself and, because he is the Son of man, has granted him power to give judgment. Do not be surprised at this, for the hour is coming when the dead will leave their graves at the sound of his voice: those who did good will come forth to life; and those who did evil will come forth to judgment. By myself, I can do nothing; I can judge only as I am told to judge, and my judging is just, because I seek not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. Were I to testify on my own behalf, my testimony would not be true; but there is another witness who speaks on my behalf, and I know his testimony is true. You sent messengers to John, and he gave his testimony to the truth - not that I depend on human testimony; no, it is for your salvation that I mention it. John was a lamp lit and shining and for a time you were content to enjoy the light he gave. However, my testimony is greater than John’s; the deeds my Father has given me to perform, these same deeds of mine testify that the Father has sent me. Besides, the Father who sent me bears witness to me himself. You have never heard his voice, you have never seen his shape, and his word finds no home in you because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent. You pour over the scriptures believing that in them, you can find eternal life; it is these scriptures that testify to me, and yet you refuse to come to me to receive life! Human glory means nothing to me. Besides, I know you too well: you have no love of God in you. I have come in the name of my Father and you refuse to accept me; if someone else should come in his own name, you would accept him. How can you believe, since you look to each other for glory and are not concerned with the glory that comes from the one God? Do not imagine that I am going to accuse you before the Father: you have placed your hopes on Moses, and Moses will be the one who accuses you. If you really believed him you would believe me too, since it was about me that he was writing; but if you will not believe what he wrote, how can you believe what I say?” Return